1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a connector to be mounted on a structure such as a panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,860,759 and FIG. 6 herein disclose a connector to be mounted on a panel. With reference to FIG. 6, the panel 1 that is formed with a mount hole 2 and the connector has a housing 3 to be inserted into the mount hole 2. A resiliently deformable lock 4 is cantilevered from the housing 3 and a locking claw 5 projects from the lock 4. An inclined surface 6 is formed on the front of the locking claw 5 and inclines out and back with respect to an inserting direction of the housing 3 into the mount hole 2 so that the locking claw 5 can easily move over the opening edge of the mount hole 2 when the housing 3 passes the mount hole 2.
The opening edge of the mount hole 2 contacts the inclined surface 6 of the locking claw 5 when the housing 3 is inserted into the mount hole 2 to deform the lock 4. The locking claw 5 passes the opening edge of the mount hole 2 when the connector housing 3 is inserted further. Thus, the lock 4 resiliently restores so that the locking claw 5 engages the panel 1 adjacent the opening edge of the mount hole 2 from the front with respect to the inserting direction of the housing 3 to hold the connector mounted on the panel 1.
Contact of the inclined surface 6 of the locking claw 5 with the opening edge of the mount hole 2 creates insertion resistance. Deformation of the lock 4 caused by the contact also creates insertion resistance. For example, an amount of deformation of the resilient lock 4 increases in proportion to an inserted amount of the housing 3 if the inclined surface 6 is planar, also increasing the insertion resistance. Furthermore, a potential exist that a force exerted on the inclined surface 6 by a mating connector or by a testing apparatus could deflect the resilient lock 4 sufficiently to disengage the housing 3 from the panel 1. The disengaged housing 3 could fall into an inaccessible location, thereby generating additional work to retrieve and mount the disengaged housing 3.
The invention was developed in view of the above problem and an object thereof is to reduce an insertion resistance upon mounting a connector into a mount hole formed in a structure such as a panel.